"They saw him come up and out of water, scream 'shark,' flail
his arms and go back under," said Rob Hill, a fellow member of the
Triathlon Club of San Diego and friend of victim David Martin, a
retired veterinarian and 38-year Solana Beach resident.

Hill said he was running on the beach while about nine other
club members were in the water when the attack took place about 150
yards offshore at Tide Park, about a half-mile north of Fletcher
Cove.

The attack was the county's first shark fatality in nearly 49
years. Authorities advised people to stay out of the water from
Torrey Pines State Beach to South Carlsbad State Beach until
Monday.

Witnesses reported seeing Martin lifted violently out of the
water before being pulled under.

"The swimmers said it was a terribly violent attack and they
knew something was wrong right away," said Solana Beach fire Capt.
Dismas Ableman.

Martin's fellow club members rushed to his aid, but the massive
wounds inflicted by the shark quickly took their toll.

Tony Romero, who was working on a construction crew building a
sea wall just south of Tide Park, said he heard the screams of
women in the water at about 7 a.m.

Looking up, Romero saw a group of people coming out of the
water, carrying a limp man by his upper body. Romero described the
man as not breathing, with foam in his mouth, and with severe
wounds to his legs.

The right leg had a deep wound from above the knee to the shin,
said Romero, who described the left leg as "shredded."

"By the time he got to the beach, there was no blood coming out
of the wounds," Romero said. "He was completely white. No
pulse."

Hill said his friend may have bled to death before he left the
water.

Women from the group ran for help from lifeguards. Lifeguard
Grant Fletcher said he and others attempted to revive Martin with
cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Martin was taken by lifeguard truck
a short distance to Fletcher Cove Park, where medics from Mercy Air
pronounced him dead at about 7:45 a.m., Ableman said.

Swimmers warned

At about 3 p.m. Friday, lifeguards at Fletcher Cove hung bright
yellow signs that read, "Due to recent shark attack, all water
activity prohibited until further notice." The prohibition actually
is a strong advisory, said Encinitas lifeguard Capt. Larry
Giles.

The fourth annual Surfin' Fire surf contest, which was scheduled
to start at 7 a.m. Saturday, has been postponed because of the
shark attack and will be rescheduled sometime within the next three
weeks, said event organizer Jon Peterson.

The shark was almost certainly a great white and was probably 12
to 17 feet long, said Richard H. Rosenblatt, professor emeritus of
marine biology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.